Hockenheim, October 20th Formula 3 European Championship season with a commanding victory in a very wet final race of 2013 at Hockenheim.

With heavy rain falling throughout the morning, the race started behind the safety car, and two laps had been completed before racing was allowed to begin.

Prema Powerteam driver Marciello came under pressure on more than one occasion from title rival Felix Rosenqvist throughout the race, but every time the Mucke Motorsport driver closed onto his tail, he dropped back due to poor visibility. Marciello's victory margin was just two tenths of a second from the Swede.

Harry Tincknell ran a lonely third for most of the race, but the Carlin driver slipped back two spots after running wide and through the gravel at the entrance to the stadium section. Prema's Lucas Auer, who had been pressuring Tincknell for the spot at the time of the Briton's gravelly excursion, took the final podium spot.

EuroInternational's Tom Blomqvist started eighth, but put together a series of neat passing moves on, respectively, Nick Cassidy and Antonio Giovinazzi, to gain two spots. He then benefited from Tincknell's off and a 10-second time loss from Jordan King in the final sector during the middle of the race to wind up fourth.

Cassidy, who started sixth, gradually fell backwards to end up 16th in his Carlin machine while Van Amersfoort’s Sven Muller and Prema’s Alex Lynn went the other way.

Muller finished seventh - one spot behind Double R’s impressive Giovinazzi - having started 12th.

Lynn, who began the race 20th after damaging his floor in qualifying, took eighth.

Pipo Derani broke his left-front suspension after spinning Eddie Cheever at the Spitzkehre while the pair squabbled over 10th while tail-end runner Tatiana Calderon T-boned Spike Goddard at the same corner later on.

Results - 16 laps: 

Pos Driver                          Team/Car                                Time/Gap

 1. Raffaele Marciello          Prema Dallara-Merc                    35m29.932s

 2. Felix Rosenqvist            Mucke Dallara-Merc                    +0.243s

 3. Lucas Auer                    Prema Dallara-Merc                    +9.363s

 4. Tom Blomqvist              Eurointernational Dallara-Merc      +15.954s

 5. Harry Tincknell              Carlin Dallara-VW                       +26.697s

 6. Antonio Giovinazzi         Double R Dallara-Merc                 +27.867s

 7. Sven Müller                  Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW           +32.112s

 8. Alex Lynn                     Prema Dallara-Merc                    +36.122s

 9. Jordan King                  Carlin Dallara-VW                       +40.293s

10. Michael Lewis               Mucke Dallara-Merc                     +42.256s

11. Jann Mardenborough    Carlin Dallara-VW                        +43.193s

12. Dennis van de Laar      Van Amersfoot Dallara-VW            +50.982s

13. Sean Gelael                Double R Dallara-Merc                  +51.864s

14. Kevin Korjus T-Sport     Dallara-Nissan                             +52.618s

15. Roy Nissany                 Mucke Dallara-Merc                     +56.846s

16. Nick Cassidy                Carlin Dallara-VW                        +58.037s

17. Eddie Cheever              Prema Dallara-Merc                    +59.144s

18. Sandro Zeller               Zeller Dallara-Merc                      +1m24.171s

19. Andre Rudersdorf         Ma-con Dallara-VW                      +1m29.798s

20. Richard Goddard          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan                 -1 lap
 

Retirements: 

 Mitchell Gilbert                 Mucke Dallara-Merc                      13 laps

 Felix Serralles                  Fortec Dallara-Merc                      10 laps

 Tatiana Calderon              Double R Dallara-Merc                   8 laps

 Nicholas Latifi                   Carlin Dallara-VW                          7 laps

 John Bryant-Meisner          Fortec Dallara-Merc                        7 laps

 Luis Felipe Derani             Fortec Dallara-Merc                        5 laps

 Lucas Wolf                       URD Dallara-Merc                          3 laps.
 

(Jamie O'Leary/autosport.com/arl)